Buying a house - how to find out who owns land near me?

thebman

Hi all,
We're currently buying a house and have learnt that a paddock behind our garden is owned by the building firm that built our house 20 years ago. They have since tried to get planning permission to build another house on the paddock but failed. They believe that there should be access to the land via a driveway down the side of our house, this doesn't exist today and is all fenced/walled up. 
Our concern is that while they still own it they will continue to try for permission and our boundary could be at risk if this access road is ever put in. Or at least a dispute hanging over us is not ideal when we're in.
We've learnt a small section of the paddock was sold off to one neighbour, for extra garden. We are hoping that the rest of the land has also been sold to neighbours but can't find out how.
Does anyone know of a way to search online for who owns what land? (Aside from Land Registry, there is no recent entry on land registry, seems outdated as it hasn;t updated the piece we know has been sold).
We'll be going to speak to the neighbours as well, but wondered if it was online too? Also any other advice/similar experiences with this type of thing, also welcome.
Thanks!

greatcrested

Have you done a map enquiry at the LR?

If the land is unregistered, finding the owner is hard - speak to locals.......

ProDave

If there is a right of access to get to the paddock then it should be on your deeds that that right exists.

As above, do a map search and pay the £3 to download the deeds to the paddock and see what it's deeds say about rights of access.

If it is owned by a builder then you can be pretty sure they will keep trying in the hope that planning rules will change and one day they will get PP, so factor in that there will be house(s) there one day,

thebman

greatcrested said:

Have you done a map enquiry at the LR?

If the land is unregistered, finding the owner is hard - speak to locals.......

Thanks. Yeh I tried to find it on the map enquiry but it seemed unregistered, and very old. Will go down the locals route

thebman

ProDave said:

If there is a right of access to get to the paddock then it should be on your deeds that that right exists.

As above, do a map search and pay the £3 to download the deeds to the paddock and see what it's deeds say about rights of access.

If it is owned by a builder then you can be pretty sure they will keep trying in the hope that planning rules will change and one day they will get PP, so factor in that there will be house(s) there one day,

thanks for that. No sign of the access on the deeds, not much detail there though. They stated part of the planning proposal for our house included the need for the access so will see what the neighbour says